Vocabulary time

This time in the margins of 'La Guingette à Deux Sous'.

First we have 'tirer une tête', said of a waiter on the terrace of a Parisian café who has lost a regular customer.

For once reference 1 was not particularly helpful, but poking around I decide that it means to pull a bit of a face, to be a bit cross or grumpy. The clue was a quote from Baroness Amélie Nothomb whom I came across back in 2010. See reference 2. From which I learn that out-of-the-box blogger search cannot cope with spelling Nothomb Northomb, which last being how I seem to prefer it. Probably not with missing accents either, but that did not matter on this occasion, the relevant posts being from the time before I had learned how to do them.

Second we have 'accessoires de cotillon', which the context would suggest is the French equivalent of sewing mailbags in prison. But which Larousse suggests are the bits and bobs which accessorise a country dance called a cotillon, while reference 1 leads me to an important 402 page customs document from the European Commission, the top of which is illustrated above and from which I learn that 'les parapluies et les ombrelles qui ne sont - de par la nature des matières utilisées dans leur fabrication - utilisables que comme accessoires de cotillon sont exclus de cette position (no 9505)'. Not very helpful in the present context, but a reminder of how much hay the legal eagles are going to make out of this brexit lark.

Perhaps Simenon is using a bit of jail bird slang for the sort of junk they have you making by way of occupation - perhaps occupational therapy - while in prison. Better than just sitting in a cell. Better than breaking stones on some hot road out in the country.

PS: BH thinks that the barn dance version of the cotillon is probably quite vigorous and might well involve the couples holding something between them, perhaps a hat, a stick or an umbrella, one at each end. Accessories of this sort are allowed on 'Strictly Come Dancing'. Perhaps in French barns they had a tub full of such things from which the lady of each couple could pick whatever took her fancy. Which choice might include not so subliminal messages to her partner about his status in her world. Alternatively, the gentlemen might pick something to present to the ladies of their choice.

Reference 1: http://www.linguee.fr/francais-anglais/.

Reference 2: http://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=amelie.